1887-88.] An Ornithological Visit to WarivicksJiire. 151 



whether tlie cure or the disease would be the worse to bear. 

 But not to weary you with further quotations, just let me 

 mention, in passing, a few of the more prominent disorders 

 that fly before this sovereign panacea : bleared and bloodshot 

 eyes, colics, vertigoes, lethargies, tumours, blood in the brain, 

 falling out of the hair, and numerous other ailments which 

 shall be nameless. After this varied category, one is inclined 

 to wonder if this same hot pigeon would cure hot tempers, as 

 if so, a stock of doves would be a valuable possession from a 

 commercial point of view. 



The jay and the magpie abound in the bushes, the former 

 especially, and, notwithstanding the incessant persecutions of 

 the gamekeepers, contrive to flourish, both species having very 

 sound ideas on the subject of self-preservation. In spring the 

 jay is perhaps as wary a bird as one would wish to see. It 

 is not of much use hunting him : he is quite equal to the 

 occasion, and won't allow himself to be caught napping. Yet 

 nevertheless, with all his caution, great numbers fall victims 

 to the gunner and poisoner, and it is really pitiable to see the 

 rows of these handsome birds hanging at the ends of the 

 keepers' houses, and at the edges of woods, in all stages of 

 putrefaction. There is no blinking the fact that they are 

 destructive to the eggs of game-birds, and that, of course, 

 causes them to be " anathema " in the eyes of the sportsman, 

 who, from his point of view, is justified in attempting to pre- 

 serve what he has purchased at considerable expenditure of 

 money. But to an outsider uninterested in the game mania, 

 it cannot fail to be a source of regret when beautiful species 

 like the present are exterminated. In many districts of 

 Scotland, where formerly plentiful, this bird is now extinct ; 

 and at the present rate of progression it bids fair to become a 

 thing of the past in several English counties as well. On the 

 Welcombe estate they are not hunted down so relentlessly ; 

 but on that of Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Park, if we are to 

 judge by the numbers of dead specimens hung in clusters 

 about the woods, systematic destruction seems to be the order 

 of the day. The note is very harsh and grating, falling on 

 the ear with alarming suddenness at times while wandering 

 through the woods. The extraordinary talent they display 

 in skulking through the thick bushes completely baffles pur- 



